Mr. John Hogan:

I can update the committee on where we are with the escrow process. As I recall, when we last met the committee it was towards the end of November. At that stage I was trying to help the committee to understand the process behind what we had done to that point. We had detailed discussions with the company to agree the framework for the escrow fund and its establishment. I was trying to articulate, as best I could, the different procurement processes under way that would put in place the infrastructure by which we could collect and manage the funds.

In our subsequent letter I acknowledged the feedback from the Chairman and Deputy MacSharry to the responses we gave. We were trying to be as clear as possible in terms of the timelines that we expected to meet over the first quarter of 2018 and in terms of when we would see the moneys begin to flow.

Our focus in recent months has been assisting and supporting the National Treasury Management Agency, which is managing the procurement process for us. In parallel, agreement was reached shortly after we last met the company in terms of the framework. That was approved by the company at board level and by Government in January. Our minds have been concentrated in recent weeks in supporting the NTMA in terms of its procurement process. We are at the stage now where we thought we would be, that is to say, the process for the appointment of the custodian agent to receive the funds is almost complete. We have entered the standstill period, which runs for up to 14 days. We expect to make an announcement shortly on the identification of the agent that will manage the moneys for us.

In parallel, there is a process of procuring the services of investment managers. We expect this process, which is rather advanced, will be completed through the course of early March. Once we have contracts signed, all of that will allow for the custodian to put the accounts in place to capture the money and for the investment managers to be active in managing the money. Our best guess is that all of that will facilitate the flow of funds into the account through the course of quarter 2, as early as possible. That is what we would hope for and anticipate.